I wouldn't preface your playing with words like "mediocre". That will affect how you feel about your playing, and thus how you play.

Just tell yourself and believe that you are awesome and I bet you'll feel the difference :)

I was once talking to a good fiddler friend of mine about another fiddler who I thought was good. My friend told me that this other fiddler wasn't actually that good in terms of technique or what he played. What made him sound good was the fact that he was a very confident person. Boisterous would be a good word. I listened to the guy again and realized my friend was right.

Playing with gusto, enthusiasm and confidence makes a huge difference. It's something I really try to work on, too, because I'm actually a pretty shy person by nature.

Videos are tough to do without feeling self-conscious, though. I'm always deleting the videos I make hahaha

Thank you. My cockatoo is deathly afraid of the fiddle but sitting far enough away she started "talking" and doing her maniacal laughter routine.

In real life I'm not that un-confident. I boss the jam around a bit at times. My playing is better than it used to be, especially since I have a nice fiddle now. I can play the tunes, and as you saw I can even play them without mistakes with the camera rolling and only one take for two songs. So there is that.

It seems to me that either your tailpiece or your tuner is touching something and giving you a vibration, I believe, unless it is the bird :-). I would suggest moving the tuner a bit more away from the neck and also check to make sure that your tailpiece is not touching your top (or a fine tuner) or your chinrest. If that does not come up with anything (but I think the tuner is touching) you might do a tap test around the perimeter of the fiddle to see if there is a place where the top is unglued.

And as for mediocre, we were all mediocre somewhere along the line (hoping I am not now!) Thanks for sharing!

I am not sure I hear buzzing. I recently put on two of the fine tuners but they aren't touching the body, the tailpiece isn't touching the body, the chinrest seems okay, the body seems well-glued. Perhaps the tuner makes a buzzing but I don't hear it myself. Perhaps the problem is the sound quality of my camera as it sat atop a metal jar full of nuts? Or something about my own skills or lack thereof?

You are feeling your tunes, and delivering it well - you aren't a frilly player, but be proud of what you're doing. Please do yourself a favor and remove all of your apology / diminishing words in your post. I find them distracting as a viewer, especially in the title. Thank you for sharing your tune, and online for everyone to see - even though I consider myself confident (live), am still working toward having the courage to do that.

Probably. I really don't pay attention to those things. I don't try to do any particular shuffle, I don't pay attention to which direction the bow goes, none of it. I guess that is one reason I feel self-conscious. I don't know how to control the bow direction or stick to any particular pattern.

Sorry, Earworm, for my egregious self-deprecation. I guess I'll just have to take your word for it that I'm not as bad as I think.